Behind Glass Doors: New Book Uncovers History Of Adland From 1950-90s

It’s not every day B&T spruiks a book launch, but today a fresh advertising title has hit the stands, and it details the history of agency land during its best decades: the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

Behind Glass Doors ventures into their offices to reveal the inner workings of the Australian advertising agency business, where the hours were demanding but the pay was good, and the boozy lunches were even better.

Australia’s advertising agencies enjoyed their reputation as a glamorous and fun place to work. Not surprisingly, many of the nation’s brightest and most creative young people were drawn to advertising.

Drawing on interviews with over a hundred former admen and women across all agency departments, this study offers unprecedented access to the changing world of the advertising agency.

It documents the different tasks performed by agency staff – from managing increasingly powerful clients to creating memorable campaigns – as well as the ways that these practices brought Australian agencies into closer contact with international trends and developments.

Behind Glass Doors: The World of Australian Advertising Agencies 1959-1989, was written by Jackie Dickenson & Robert Crawford, who commented, “Based on interviews with over 120 people who worked across all departments in the agency, Behind Glass Doors is the first study of the everyday operations of Australia’s advertising agencies as well as their connections with the global advertising industry.”

You can read a couple of excerpts of the book here:

As the advertising agencies came to be seen as more professional and worldly in their outlook and practices, they were able to satisfy the advertisers’ expectations. Ultimately, the agency’s successful repositioning of themselves as glamorous partners rather than mere service-providers to their clients created a ‘golden age’ for Australian advertising agencies and, in particular, the managers and the creatives. 5 Introduction It was not, of course, a ‘golden age’ for everyone.

The changes affecting agency operations meant that employees in certain departments were becoming vulnerable. Account service staff saw their status slowly erode as clients and agency management placed a new emphasis on creative work, while support staff, such as tea ladies and lift operators, fell victim to the agencies’ drive for greater profitability. Others struggled with the prevailing agency culture.

Australian advertising’s hyper-masculine environment meant that the agency could be a challenging and difficult workplace for women. Few rose through the ranks, fewer still found their way into senior positions within the agency hierarchy.

Advertising’s glory days were fleeting. The forces that enabled advertising to grow from a cottage industry to a global enterprise would also consume it. As agencies adopted a more professional approach to their work, so too did their clients. Advertisers were also training staff.

The appointment of marketing managers and, later, brand managers to oversee their marketing strategy would have a significant impact on their relationship with the agency. As the managing directors focused on running their businesses, they left it to their marketing experts to deal with the agency.

With less money and influence, advertising’s glamour began to fade. Globalisation similarly eroded the status of Australian advertising agencies.

Latest News

Pay TV provider Foxtel has heralded the next wave of change in Australian television with a new, dedicated 4K live channel. For those who are unaware, 4K is 20 times the definition of standard definition, and four times the definition of HD. The arrival of Foxtel’s 4K channel is an Australian-first, bringing with it a […]

M&C Saatchi Group has partnered with documentary makers, writers, producers and digital content pioneers Michael Lawrence (left in photo) and Nicholas Cook (right in photo) to launch film and television production studio THIS. Lawrence and Cook have established an enviable track record creating story-driven content and feature documentaries based on The Human Indomitable Spirit (THIS) […]

Jeff Schwisow is a Melbourne-based strategy specialist, speaker and the author of Projectify – How to use projects to engage your people in strategy that evolves your business. In this guest post, he argues that our obsession with being busy right now is what’s holding us back from planning our futures tomorrow… To survive in today’s […]

Creative agency Host/Havas has announced that its chief creative officer, Darren Spiller, will be leaving the agency. Spiller joined Host as its chief creative officer in January last year and then assumed the same role when the agency merged with Havas in October 2017. Host/Havas has received of a long list of creative accolades this […]

Yesterday at TedX Melbourne the team behind award-winning, Melbourne-based agency Your Creative launched their new tech venture Hassl, the project management platform taking on Trello and the likes. With the belief there was a better design solution to project management, the platform has been developed over the last two years in collaboration with their clients. […]

Global discovery platform Taboola has announced a strategic partnership with Wider Planet, Korea’s largest demand-side and data management platform. The partnership builds on Taboola’s programmatic efforts in Asia-Pacific, and will bring together Korea’s largest demand platform for agencies and brands to provide access to Taboola’s global audience through premium publisher placements. The partnership means advertisers […]

Automated ad buying platform, Smartly was at the centre of the tech innovation stage at the Online Retailer conference 2018. Smartly head of ANZ Marta Bonzanini (pictured below) discussed the integral role automation plays in the future of marketers and creatives. “If an ad is not performing as well as planned, you probably have some […]

For the moments when we can’t be together IRL, Messenger video chat helps you connect in real-time with the people you care about most. Chatting face-to-face live makes all the difference when you have exciting news to share, you need a study buddy for a big test, or you simply want to pass the time […]

With Aussie farmers facing so many challenges, could the answer be Blockchain technology? Ranking top 10 at this year’s Overseas Talent Entrepreneurial Conference (OTEC), pitching against 32 other start-ups from around the world, Aussie start-up Agunity are leading AgTech innovation. Having won the right to represent Australia during Investible’s nation-wide pitch competition, AgUnity took to […]

The Fuel Agency has launched the new ‘TAFE + Jobs’ campaign, aimed to promote and drive applications and enrolments for courses starting in 2019 There’s a lot happening in Victoria, with record investment in road and rail projects, and in the health, community and disability sectors. As a result, there’s greater demand for skilled workers. […]

The announcement designates Kantar as an approved third-party measurement provider for brands looking to verify their media spend performance on Google owned platforms. Kantar is approved globally to provide both Brand Lift Insights for evaluation of brand impact from campaigns and for independent measurement of audience reach from campaigns on Google properties. Kantar CEO Eric […]

“It’s 2018”, is something you hear a lot when you talk to the players, coaching staff and fans involved in Rugby AU’s bid for the ‘Rugby World Cup Women’s 2021’ tournament. There is this sense that they are not only ready for a greater stage, but raring to go. As one player said “Ready?! We’re […]

Shhh Silk is an Australian brand that quickly grew in popularity among celebrities like Gisele Bündchen and Kim Kardashian West. Shhh Silk has just received a $1.8 million order from a very large brand in the US, and CEO Olivia Carr’s projections is for this to be a $50 million business in five years’ time. […]

LogIn

Signing in with LinkedIn

Please wait while we sign you in with LinkedIn.

This may take some time.

Please be patient and do not refresh the page.

(A new window from LinkedIn should open for you to authorize the B&T login. If you don't see this please check behind this window, and if it is still not there check your browser settings and turn off the pop-up blocker.)